Art gallery shows angels among us

Saturday

Nov 23, 2013 at 1:00 PM

By Nancy HastingsTwitter: @nhastingsHDNJONESVILLE — With the holiday season comes the opportunity to view angels all around – something a local outreach is providing the chance for people to see.Grounded in Grace Coffee House, 360 E. Chicago, has several upcoming events to show how others perceive angels. During the month of December, the coffee house will be hosting an art gallery with the theme “Angels Among Us.”“We are inviting members and friends of the community to submit artwork that portrays where and how they perceive God’s presence among us in the form of traditional and not so traditional angels,” the Rev. Cathy Johnson said. “This can be something you create for this occasion or something you created in the past.”Artwork can vary from paintings, drawings, photographs, poems, sculptures and more, Johnson said.The coffee house, next door to the Jonesville First Presbyterian Church, was the former Grace Episcopal Church. It was purchased by several church elders and started as an outreach that has hosted numerous concerts and now, various events that tie together during the month of December.In addition to the art gallery, the annual Knit Wits Christmas Bazaar and a Christmas concert and sing-a-long is coming up the first full weekend in December. The bazaar is from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Dec. 7, and “Songs of the Season: Christmas Carols and Special Music” begins at 5 p.m. Dec. 8.“During the bazaar, there will be vendors at the coffee house featuring knitted and hand-made items, gently used Christmas items, the Knit Wits’ famous pickles and lunch for sale,” Johnson said. “The concert the next day includes concert pianist Sandy Collins at the Jonesville First Presbyterian Church, followed by a Christmas After-Glow and Angels Among Us Art Gallery.”Johnson said the Christmas events all tie together as a free-will offering will support the angel tree project at Williams Elementary School in Jonesville.Johnson credits organizer John Ciaravino as the person who “puts in all in place — he offers the vision,” she said.Ciaravino is part of the executive committee overseeing the project, who is quick to note the mission’s vision wasn’t his alone.“My job is to interpret other people’s vision and help them put it into action,” Ciaravino said. “It ties back to the integral belief of serving the needy.”He notes that others, like Mary Jean Dulmage, better known as “MJ,” are instrumental in using their talents and ideas to further the mission’s cause.“MJ has great connections with other people and helpful skills,” Ciaravino said. “As part of our marketing staff, she has ties with Sauk Theater and is creating a Web site for Grounded in Grace.”As an artist, Ciaravino came up with the art gallery idea, noting it’s where the committee “is going - so people can come somewhere they don’t feel churched.” With so many ways to interpret what angels are, people can share their talents in a way that makes them comfortable, he said.Johnson said numerous entries are beginning to trickle in with one from a couple who attended a reenactment in Gettysburg recently.“They took a picture without realizing there was a rainbow and in the configuration of clouds, there is what looks like an angel,” Johnson said. “What’s also neat is that the guy’s son was recently cured of cancer.”An art teacher in Jonesville plans to include her classroom in the project by choosing 10 artistic endeavors from a classroom assignment to be included at the gallery.Dulmage hopes to do a clay sculpture with her 11 year-old niece, while Ciaravino is currently finishing up a stained-glass project to submit in the gallery. Johnson has a poem with a collage of images.“Hopefully the words will flow and convey a message,” Johnson said.The committee originally set Nov. 25 as a deadline for submitting items, but will accept the art up until the beginning of December, noting they don’t want to discourage anyone from bringing in things to display.“At Grounded in Grace Coffee House angels are among us giving their gifts,” Johnson said.